Northwest Cranberry Growers Wish You’d Eat Their Product Year-Round

Northwest cranberry growers are trying to get more of their product into the supermarket produce section. These berries are for sale at a Salem, Oregon grocery store.

Chris LehmanNorthwest News Network

Originally published on November 27, 2013 3:16 pm

Listen

Listening...

/

One out of every five cranberries grown in the U.S. is eaten Thanksgiving week, according to industry giant Ocean Spray.

And chances are that your Thanksgiving meal this year will probably include some kind of cranberry dish. Here in the Northwest, cranberry farmers hope to convince Americans to eat more berries year-round.

"We make them into our own sauce. We use them in salads, cranberry bread. We eat a lot of cranberries," says Scott McKenzie. He has been harvesting the berries for nearly 20 years on his coastal farm near Port Orford, Oregon.

McKenzie says most Northwest growers had a fairly average yield this year, a little down from last year. But a robust national harvest kept prices fairly modest.

McKenzie says farmers like him sell most of their berries for processing -- for things like juice and canned sauces. But he says more growers are trying to sell their berries in the produce section, where they typically fetch a higher price.

"I think that's going to be a bigger part of what we do here in Oregon over the next few years," he says.

Oregon and Washington are among the nation's top five cranberry producing states. But the region's output is tiny compared to the leaders: Wisconsin, Massachusetts and New Jersey.